The Simpsons

The Simpsons, dated 1991, stems from Konami's famous arcade brawler, one of the most beloved group games of early-nineties amusement halls. Our record covers the Commodore 64 version, the conversion of that large-scale arcade production to a home 8-bit computer.

The source game ran on a simple but brilliant premise: the whole Simpson family sets out to rescue baby Maggie, fighting through a Springfield packed with goons. The side view and the walk-right-and-punch rhythm were defining traits of the beat 'em up genre, which ruled arcades at the time.

Porting arcade hits to the Commodore 64 was a discipline of its own. Programmers had to squeeze colourful, crowd-filled action into a machine with a fraction of the horsepower, and results varied wildly from title to title. For many households, though, such conversions were the only way to bring an arcade sensation home.

In 1991 The Simpsons was a fresh worldwide phenomenon and its licence spread across every platform in sight. Today this version stands as a telling document of how a cult arcade cabinet was translated into 8-bit vocabulary.

Home computer versions had to give up the four-player simultaneous action of the cabinet, yet they strove to keep the humour and the recognisable Springfield family. Konami's reputation as a master of licences made its 1991 machines some of the busiest in the arcades, so this 8-bit conversion measures exactly what could be carried home.

On OldGame.cz you can launch this conversion straight in your browser and judge for yourself how much of the arcade original survived the journey.